Larson wants Mexico to reimburse Texas for illegal immigrants

Updated 12:56 am, Wednesday, April 4, 2012

State Rep. Lyle Larson has written a letter to the Mexican president asking that Texas be repaid.

State Rep. Lyle Larson has written a letter to the Mexican president asking that Texas be repaid.

Photo: File Photo, San Antonio Express-News

Larson wants Mexico to reimburse Texas for illegal immigrants

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State Rep. Lyle Larson is asking Mexican President Felipe Calderón to pay for services that Texas provides immigrants who are here illegally.

In a March 21 letter, Larson, R-San Antonio, wrote that the state spends between $6 billion and $8 billion a year on health care and other costs for illegal immigrants, a number he attributed to the Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas.

Larson, who filed a bill during the 2011 legislative session that would have required state agencies and organizations that receive state funding to track the services they provide immigrants, said he wants to “start a dialogue.”

“We need to sit down and figure this out from an economic viewpoint,” he said. “I don't believe anybody I'm aware of has asked the people in power in Mexico for compensation.”

In August, Gov. Rick Perry sent a bill to the federal government for $349 million for the cost of incarcerating illegal immigrants.

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“I don't believe that letter is going to do anything other than highlight his own political agenda,” said Martinez, CEO and founder of the César E. Chávez Legacy and Educational Foundation. “It's not going to get anywhere.”

In his letter, Larson said 1.6 million Mexican citizens live illegally in Texas. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that the total number of illegal immigrants living in Texas is 1.65 million.

Pinning down the actual cost to taxpayers caused by illegal immigration is difficult. In 2006, the Texas Comptroller found that illegal immigrants pay more in state taxes than they cost the state in services.

At the local level, however, the study found that illegal immigrants pay more than $513 million in taxes, and cost hospitals $1.3 billion in uncompensated health care costs and $141.9 million for incarceration.

But, as Larson pointed out, hospitals don't generally track the immigration status of their patients; so reaching an estimate of the costs is difficult. The law he proposed during the session that would have tracked that data didn't make it out of committee.

“The time has come for us to sit down and start having adult conversation about them reimbursing us,” he said.

And he had some creative ideas for how Mexico, which nationalized its oil industry in the 1930s but has seen a decline in production in recent years, could compensate Texas.

“Mexico could provide payment for these services by allowing U.S. companies to develop mineral rich areas of northern Mexico and collect these resources as an in-kind payment,” Larson wrote.